The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible

The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible

by Simon Winchester
The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible

The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible

by Simon Winchester

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Overview

“Simon Winchester never disappoints, and The Men Who United the States is a lively and surprising account of how this sprawling piece of geography became a nation. This is America from the ground up. Inspiring and engaging.” —Tom Brokaw

Simon Winchester, acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Atlantic and The Professor and the Madman, delivers his first book about America: a fascinating popular history that illuminates the men who toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizenry and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings.

How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America’s most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators, such as Lewis and Clark and the leaders of the Great Surveys; the builders of the first transcontinental telegraph and the powerful civil engineer behind the Interstate Highway System. He treks vast swaths of territory, from Pittsburgh to Portland, Rochester to San Francisco, Seattle to Anchorage, introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today’s United States.

Throughout, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree. Featuring 32 illustrations throughout the text, The Men Who United the States is a fresh look at the way in which the most powerful nation on earth came together.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062079626
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 10/15/2013
Sold by: HARPERCOLLINS
Format: eBook
Pages: 512
Sales rank: 228,124
File size: 6 MB

About the Author

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.

Hometown:

New York; Massachusetts; Scotland

Date of Birth:

September 28, 1944

Place of Birth:

London, England

Education:

M.A., St. Catherine¿s College, Oxford, 1966

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations xi

Author's Note xiii

Preface: The Pure Physics of Union xv

Part I When America's Story was Dominated By Wood, 1785-1805 1

A View across the Ridge 3

Drawing a Line in the Sand 6

Peering through the Trees 17

The Frontier and the Thesis 24

The Wood Was Become Grass 32

Encounters with the Sioux 41

First Lady of the Plains 49

High Plains Rafters 52

Passing the Gateway 55

Shoreline Passage 65

Part II When America's Story Went Beneath the Earth, 1809-1901 73

The Lasting Benefit of Harmony 75

The Science That Changed America 77

Drawing the Colors of Rocks 80

The Wellspring of Knowledge 83

The Tapestry of Underneath 88

Setting the Lures 91

Off to See the Elephant 96

The West, Revealed 104

The Singular First Adventure of Kapurats 113

The Men Who Gave Us Yellowstone 129

Diamonds, Sex, and Race 139

Part III When the American Story Traveled by Water, 1803-1900 163

Journeys to the Fall Line 165

The Streams beyond the Hills 171

The Pivot and the Feather 180

The First Big Dig 188

The Wedded Waters of New York 196

The Linkman Cometh 214

That OF Man River 222

Part IV When the American Story was Fanned by Fire, 1811-1956 239

May the Roads Rise Up 241

Rain, Steam, and Speed 248

The Annihilation of the In-Between 252

The Immortal Legacy of Crazy Judah 259

Colonel Eisenhower's Epiphanic Expedition 280

The Colossus of Roads 294

And Then We Looked Up 312

The Twelve-Week Crossing 316

Part V When the American Story was Told Through Metal, 1835-Tomorrow 329

To Go, but Not to Move 331

The Man Who Tamed the Lightning 335

The Signal Power of Human Speech 351

With Power for One and All 357

Lighting the Corn, Powering the Prairie 375

The Talk of the Nation 385

Making Money from Air 396

Television: The Irresistible Force 406

The All of Some Knowledge 417

Epilogue 429

Acknowledgments 435

Bibliography 441

Index 451

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